Monday, March 8, 2010

THE FAT SPY - The Wild Ones - "Do The Turtle" (1966)

Following on the heels of last night's Oscars, it's been 44 years, and "The Fat Spy" still hasn't got what it's got coming to it! I'm sure it was better than something that just got an award, and it is at least 10 times better than "Sins Of The Fleshapoids" and "The Nasty Rabbit" combined! "The Fat Spy" is basically a teen musical spy comedy wrapped around a seminal plot that nobody even pretends to care about, but a goodly portion of the music is a real treat and worth seeking out!

For instance, the beginning sequence has a rousing duet performance by Johnny Tillotson and Jordan Christopher of The Wild Ones called "People Sure Act Funny!"

Next Day Quick Update: Due to good fortune, I was doing some searching on Google, and stumbled on this free streaming full-length version of "The Fat Spy" on Google videos, go figure!! It's not the best quality, but you'll get the idea because the film starts with "People Sure Act Funny!" Dig in!!

The Wild Ones have the notoreity of having recorded the first version of "Wild Thing" a year before The Troggs, who ended up having one of the number one smash hits of all time with it! And while we're on the subject of "Wild Thing," did you know that the guy who wrote it, Chip Taylor aka James Wesley Voight, is that wild thing herself, Angelina Jolie's uncle!

This Go-Go shot is for Adam Gorightly!

Out of this mass of tuneage, there's one refrain that highlights that new dance craze that never did, or ever is, going to catch on, and was obviously inspired by Jack E. Leonard, C'mon, everybody "Do The Turtle"!!! On the Dungeon charts, "Do The Turtle" comes in a close second behind Neil Sedaka's "Do The Jellyfish" in pseudo-psycho dance craze history! Third would probably be "Black Belt" from "Teenage V Debs!" Knee-kick that!!

Other big names in this film included Brian Donlevy and Jayne Mansfield! In fact, it was Jayne's name they were trying to capitalize on the most, unforunately it was toward the end of Jayne's career and life. The fact she was pregnant didn't help much, even though she put on weight in the right places, she had also added weight everywhere. A year later, Jayne Mansfield would be gone forever!

"Feels like you're in slow motion! C'mon C'mon get out of your shell!" Yeah!!

Not too bad when Phylis Diller as Camille Salamander was amazingly not even that annoying!!! Worth checking out purely for the music, if nothing else!

9 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

"Do The Turtle" is awesome and i think i need to see this here movie...

pilgrimchick said...

Jayne Mansfield--I completely forgot about her before reading this. Wow!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

PC,
Obviously you're not one, but no male who was a teenager in the 60's could ever forget Jayne!

Dr. Heckle said...

I did a turtle once. Nobody caught on film and put it in a musical though.

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Dr H,
Yeah, well, believe it or don't, we actually made a film called "Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jyde" when we were in high school! I'm pretty sure the only print is lost forever!

A Good Moroccan said...

This post has taken me back to another age !

Antony said...

must be a nice film! never watched it....does anyone know where to get it?

Greg Goodsell said...

Poor Jayne. She had a very bad date with that pesticide truck.

Mark Dogerty said...

Antony, try to download it from http:\\queentorrent.com
enjoy!

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